Matt Patten (D-OH) Resists The Dark Side-- Todd Book, On The Other Hand...

Last week we introduced you to Ohio's Sarah Palin. The unsavory character is Jennifer Garrison, an-anti-choice, homophobic, anti-union reactionary who is running for Secretary of State with the support-- tragically-- of the Columbus Democratic Establishment. And not only are Gov. Ted Strickland and odious Democratic Party boss Chris Redfern, pushing this extremely right wing and ambitious political time-bomb, they helped pressure 35 state legislators into endorsing her yesterday. One is Scioto County Rep. Todd Book, who probably doesn't realize how many progressives, grassroots and netroots Democrats he discouraged from supporting him in a race for the Democratic nomination to run against Mean Jean Schmidt next year. Who wants another Zack Space in Congress?

But if that's the bad news, there is one bright side. Blue America doesn't usually get too involved with local legislative races but last year we ran across one candidate, Matt Patten, who was so outstanding that we endorsed and supported him. He won and he's been a great freshman state Rep. So it should surprise no one that Matt resisted the pressure to endorse this anti-progressive monstrosity. We all owe Matt for standing up and representin'!

It's shameful that the Ohio Democratic Establishment would stoop so low as to embrace the embarrassing candidacy of someone who stands for everything the Democratic Party has been fighting against since FDR was elected. It's hard to figure out how people like Jennifer Garrison even call themselves Democrats. Racists and bigots left the Democratic Party and joined the GOP with Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and Phil Gramm. What is Garrison waiting for?

Democrats Kicked Ass In The State Legislative Races Around The Country Last Night

In the last few weeks leading up to the election, Blue America moved away from talking to congressional candidates to talking with state legislative candidates and to state leaders of ProgressiveMajority, the folks who are building a progressive base of local officials within the Democratic Party so that we wind up with more candidates like Martin Heinrich, Debbie Cook, John Adler, Gary Peters, Judy Baker and Mark Schauer and less like Heath Shuler, Tim Mahoney and Christine Jennings, Republicans handpicked by Rahm Emanuel to advance his insidious and completely evil agenda. (Good thing he won't have much influence in the future, huh?)

So our first local candidate was Matt Patten (check out the discussion we had with him on October 18) and he won his race and helped the Democrats win a majority in the Ohio state house. Same thing happened with Fred Clark, our awesome Wisconsin candidate who won his tough race and helped deliver the State Assembly to the Democrats. Saturday we've asked Dean Nielsen of Progressive Majority to come back and talk with us about the legislative races across the country and how they play into the redrawing of congressional districts in two years.

Democrats were outspent by the Republicans and their corporate allies in Ohio two to one and still will wind up with between 51 and 54 seats in a 99 person chamber. A friend suggested looking at last night's state legislative results as part of the build up that started in 2006 to the 2010 redistricting. In that time, Democrats-- progressives in many cases-- have won majorities, and expanded majorities where they already had them, in all regions across the country. Democrats now control 60 of 98 partisan chambers. After taking over the Delaware House of Representatives (and defeating Republican Speaker Terry Spence in the process), Democrats now control every legislative chamber in the Northeast, with the exception of the Pennsylvania senate. By winning in New York (the state Senate went blue last night-- the first time that's happened in my lifetime!) and Wisconsin, they now have both houses and the governor. I'm hoping that McHugh's seat in upstate NY will cease to exist and that Peter King will find himself with some more solidly Democratic constituents on Long Island. The Nevada Senate also went Democratic and Merkley is leaving Oregon with a super-majority in the House, having helped elect 8 new members last night.

Democrats also expanded their majorities in Connecticut, Washington and Michigan and beat back close calls in New Hampshire and Maine, where the GOP nearly mustered the strength to win back control. And in California it looks like Democrats will have a net gain of 2 seats in the Assemby and maybe one in the state Senate, where Hanna-Beth Jackson is stuck in a deadlock with right-wing nut Tony Strickland. Bad news in Montana was that while Gov. Schweitzer was coasting to re-election, the state Senate flipped to the dark side. Bad news in Tennessee and Oklahoma brought ties to the Senates there, leaving them unable to keep the far right from devastating working families in those states.

Progressive Majority in Ohio

Today Blue America is proud to host our friends from Progressive Majority and Matt Patten, the Democrat running for an open red seat in Ohio's 18th state legislative district (in the Berea area). Like Barack Obama and Jesus, Matt came up as a community organizer. He's a new generation labor leader and he's exactly the kind of progressive activist the Democratic Party needs so we don't wind up with slime from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party taking over. We have more than enough Rahm Emanuels and Tim Mahoneys.
 
We asked David Dettman from Progressive Majority to introduce the program and Matt to us at Firedoglake this morning at 11AM, PT. He sent this post along in preparation:

Just four seats. That’s all that separates Democrats from a majority in the Ohio House of Representatives. And, in 2008, Progressive Majority’s number one goal in Ohio is to elect progressive champions to the House and deliver that majority.  

Progressive Majority has a slate of 11 fantastic candidates for the Ohio House ready to advance our progressive agenda. The Number 1 targeted race for the Ohio House features Matt Patten in House District 18, which includes the critical Cleveland suburbs of Strongsville, North Royalton, Berea, Olmsted Falls, and Olmsted Township. This seat is held by a term-limited conservative and the Republicans have nominated an even more conservative candidate to run against Matt. 

Matt, a long-time union and community activist, will fight for economic justice, quality education and universal access to health care. He is the grandson of Irish immigrants who has dedicated himself to improving his community and enhancing economic opportunity for Ohioans. His opponent, Colleen Grady, is an ultra-conservative member of the State Board of Education who is best known for her avid support for teaching creationism in the science classroom. She is a Sarah Palin wannabe who is spending enormous amounts of money attacking Matt in ways that have been called “dirty politics” by the local media.  

When Matt and our other candidates for the Ohio House form a Democratic majority, they’ll usher in a new era of progressive legislation and leadership, and help Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland bring to ALL Ohioans the progressive values of economic justice, civil rights, quality health care and education, a clean environment and reproductive freedom.

Progressive Majority’s winning strategy to recruit, train and elect progressive champions ensures a strong, lasting progressive base in Ohio and seven other “must-win” states across the nation.